BFA-St. Albans bans St. Johnsbury's Alercio

BFA-St. Albans has banned from St. Johnsbury football coach Rich Alercio after his alleged behavior in the teams' regular-season game. BFA also made a request to the VIFL that the teams are not scheduled to play while Alercio remains SJA's coach.(Photo: Michael Beniash/Caledonian Record)

St. Johnsbury Academy head coach Rich Alercio is no longer welcome at BFA-St. Albans.

That's the message BFA athletic director Dan Marlow sent to St. Johnsbury and the Vermont Interscholastic Football League following Alercio's alleged behavior in the teams' weather-delayed contest that was completed Oct. 11 in St. Albans.

Marlow has made a formal request with the VIFL and St. Johnsbury, as long as Alercio remains the coach, that the Bobwhites and Hilltoppers are not scheduled to play in the regular season. The VIFL will be drafting its next two-year schedule this offseason.

The Caledonian-Record in St. Johnsbury first reported news of BFA's trespass order against Alercio on Saturday.

When the Sept. 5 game in St. Albans was halted by a lightning storm around 11:15 p.m., the Hilltoppers led 28-3 with 51 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The game was rescheduled to finish over a month later and SJA, making the 150-mile roundtrip, returned and earned a 42-9 victory.

While not divulging what Alercio said or did, Marlow said the coach's actions were inappropriate and disrespectful. The decision to ban Alercio from school and athletic grounds — BFA plays its home games at the Collins-Perley complex — was supported by the coaching staff and administration, Marlow said.

"This isn't about bashing anybody, but we felt strongly because of what occurred, particularly in the return visit, that caused us to make this decision," Marlow told the Free Press on Thursday morning. "This isn't a common thing to do and we felt our backs were up against the wall and we had to make a statement and this is what we decided to do.

"The coach is not welcome here. As long as he's the head coach, we respectfully ask not to be scheduled for the regular season."

When reached by phone Thursday, Alercio declined to comment on the matter.

SJA athletic director David McGinn said he's hoping to resolve the issue.

"BFA has made a request for something they said took place," McGinn said. "We are working with the VIFL and them to achieve the best possible outcome."

According to Marlow, Alercio sent a letter of apology and McGinn also spoke to Marlow. But that hasn't moved BFA to lift the ban.

"Things are still pretty fresh right now and things aren't going to change in the immediate future," Marlow said. "This isn't something we are taking lightly. This is how we feel and this is our wish."

It isn't the first time Alercio has been banned from an athletic field. In 2012, as a youth baseball coach, Alercio got into a physical altercation with an umpire after a game at Northwood Park in Rutland Town. Alercio was barred from the park for the remainder of the season by the town Select Board, according to a June 2012 story published in the Rutland Herald.

Before leading St. Johnsbury to an undefeated regular season and the first D-I finals appearance in program history this fall, Alercio was picked to launch the Castleton State College football program, which debuted in 2009.

Alercio was forced to resign from Castleton in February of 2011 after he improperly arranged three student loans totaling nearly $22,000 for one of his players. Castleton avoided sanctions from the incident, which the NCAA classified as a secondary infraction.

Vermont Principals' Association executive director Bob Johnson said the schools disagreed over the continuation and completion of the game on Sept. 5. National federation rules say there are two options in such a scenario:

If both schools agreed, the game would be considered final at the point when it was stopped (in this case, the third quarter);

If no agreement was reached, then the game would have to be completed.

"My understanding is St. Johnsbury requested the game to be done and BFA said no and they had their reasons to finish the game," Johnson said.

VIFL president and state scheduler Sean Farrell said there is no set protocol within the league's bylaws to make a ruling or honor BFA's request. Thirteen teams reside in Division I, but realignments, a cycle done every two years, are in the preliminary stages now.

"We will listen to (BFA's) concerns, but I'm not so realistic as far as the schedule goes," said Farrell, also the Middlebury AD. "This is new territory that we will have to look at."